Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have now all announced earnings results for the 2021 full year, and it's Sony that raked in the most revenue during the year.
As rounded up by Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, Sony's PlayStation division pulled in $24.87 billion for the calendar year, which compares to $16.28 billion for Microsoft and $15.3 billion for Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft are massive, diversified companies with many unique business units, but these numbers pertain to each company's gaming divisions specifically.
Biggest PlayStation Games Coming in 2022
Revenue is only one piece of the puzzle, though. In terms of operating profit--i.e. how much money a company makes after paying expenses--Nintendo leads with $5.4 billion in terms of publicly disclosed numbers. Sony had an operating profit of $2.63 billion for its gaming division. Microsoft, meanwhile, does not report operating profit for its Xbox division.
These types of comparisons are never perfect or complete, as each company has their own different business philosophies and practices. But in terms of revenue, Sony is the clear leader by a significant margin thanks in part to the success of the PS5 and its subscription services.
In terms of console sales, the Switch leads the way with more than 103 million systems sold since launch in 2017. The PS5, which released in November 2020, has moved more than 17 million units, while 2020's Xbox Series X|S is projected to have sold 12 million units.
In other news, Sony just acquired Destiny developer Bungie for $3.6 billion. In the wake of that, here's a look at some of PlayStation's big games and studios following the deal.The PS5 reaches new sales heights, but the PS4 is actually selling better over a similar period of time.
As part of Sony's earnings announcement this week, the company revealed that the PlayStation 5 has surpassed 17 million units shipped since launch in November 2020. That's a very big number, but how does it compare to its rival, Xbox, its predecessor, and other platforms across the industry? Let's have a look.
Slower Than PS4
The PlayStation 5's 17.3 million units shipped since launch is no doubt a big number and an impressive result, but sales are actually slower than that of the PlayStation 4 during its equivalent launch period. Over a similar period of time, the PS4 was able to sell 20.2 million units, so the PS5 is actually just under 3 million short of matching that pace. There is a good reason for this, of course, as the ongoing global pandemic has disrupted supply chains around the world.Sony management has said it is selling every PS5 it can make (and anyone who had tried to buy one knows this, of course), so demand is outstripping supply. For what it's worth, these same issues are affecting Xbox and Nintendo (along with others inside the technology space and out). The supply issues are so severe that Sony actually announced a downward revision for its PS5 sales target for the current quarter. Sony previously believed the PS5 would reach 22.6 million units by March 2022, but that number has been downgraded to 19.3 million.
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